Shaving razors have evolved over the years from a straight edge razor, having a razor edge that needed to be sharpened from time to time, to a safety razor having a unitary handle and head, the head being opened to receive replaceable blades, to a handle and razor cartridge system, where a razor cartridge having integrated blades further included a connection mechanism to attach the cartridge to a handle.
With the advent of replaceable blades, there next came the need to keep a store of razor blades for replacement when used blades lost their edge. With safety razors, which used substantially flat single or double edge blades, new blades were individually wrapped in paper, stacked and placed in a cardboard box with end flaps for removing a wrapped blade. The flat nature of the safety razor blades made wrapping in paper and storage of a number of wrapped blades in a small cardboard box very easy.
However, once disposable razor blade cartridges came into use, there was a need to store the blade cartridges in a dispenser where the cartridge could be attached to or removed from the handle quickly and easily. These dispensers were most often formed of plastic and provided separate compartments for individual blade cartridges.
One example of a cartridge dispenser is found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,835,532, which shows a number of compartments into which individual blade cartridges are stored, having latches to maintain the cartridges in the compartments. When a blade cartridge is to be used from the dispenser, the user attaches the handle to the blade cartridge and pulls up on the handle to overcome the force of the latch on the blade cartridge, releasing the blade cartridge from the dispenser. The user can replace a used cartridge into the dispenser by pushing the used blade cartridge into an empty compartment, overcoming the force of the latch when pushing down, and then releasing the cartridge from the handle.
Blade cartridge dispensers have changed with changes in blade cartridges. For example, blade cartridges have changed to include not just the blade portion but also a connection portion that is pivotably attached to the blade portion. In keeping, the dispensers have been designed to include an area for the connection portion of the cartridge.
As shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,041,926, blade cartridge dispensers have been described to include two piece structures that form compartments for containing the connection portions as well as the blade portions of the cartridge. The structure shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,041,926 also describes a latch that engages the top of the connection portion of the cartridge, with a cam on the handle to unlatch the connection portion and remove the cartridge.
However, there is needed a razor cartridge dispenser which simply and stylishly retains, dispenses and accepts razor cartridges that is easily made and contains its own packaging.